Gaming machines, such as slot machines, video poker machines and the like, have been a cornerstone of the gaming industry for several years. Generally, the popularity of such machines with players is dependent on the likelihood (or perceived likelihood) of winning money at the machine and the intrinsic entertainment value of the machine relative to other available gaming options. Where the available gaming options include a number of competing machines and the expectation of winning at each machine is roughly the same (or believed to be the same), players are likely to be attracted to the most entertaining and exciting machines. Shrewd operators consequently strive to employ the most entertaining and exciting machines, features, and enhancements available because such machines attract frequent play and hence increase profitability to the operator. Therefore, there is a continuing need for gaming machine manufacturers to continuously develop new games and improved gaming enhancements that will attract frequent play through enhanced entertainment value to the player.
One concept that has been employed to enhance player entertainment and achieve player loyalty is the use of progressive games. In the gaming industry, a “progressive” game historically involves collecting coin-in data from participating gaming device(s) (e.g., slot machines), contributing a percentage of that coin-in data to a progressive jackpot, and awarding that jackpot amount to a player upon the occurrence of a certain jackpot-triggering event. A jackpot-triggering event may occur when a “progressive winning position” is achieved at a participating gaming device. If the gaming device is a slot machine, a progressive winning position may correspond to alignment of progressive-jackpot symbols along a certain payline. The initial progressive jackpot is a predetermined minimum amount. The jackpot amount, however, progressively increments to higher values as players continue to play the gaming machine without winning the jackpot. Further, when several gaming machines are linked together such that several players at several gaming machines compete for the same jackpot, the jackpot increments at a much faster rate, which leads to further player excitement. Typically, once the progressive jackpot is awarded, the jackpot amount is reset to the predetermined minimum amount, which is often referred to as the “reset value.”
In existing progressive games, there may be a single progressive jackpot or multiple progressive jackpots that may be awarded and incremented. Each progressive jackpot is typically awarded upon the occurrence of a single, qualifying jackpot-won event (e.g., a predetermined symbol combination on an active payline of the base game). While some progressive game features provide some enhanced excitement, there is a continuing need to develop new features for progressive games to satisfy the demands of players and operators. Such new features for progressive games will further enhance player excitement, perpetuate player loyalty, and thus increase game play. The present invention helps to satisfy this market demand.